You're probably thinking that hiking in 27 degrees with snow falling is cold, but its not too bad once you get moving. The real killer is the mud. I naively convinced myself that with the cold there would be no mud. Stupid, stupid Kyle. The friction of our tracks and the intrepid hikers before us combined with the incessant flow of mountain springs turned parts of the trail into muddy slip and slides. We spent a lot of time trying to convert frantic flailing into smooth downhill slides, but ended up mostly just waving our poles enough to cover ourselves with tree snow.
The change if scenery was Much appreciated. The entire world became white (a bit of a problem when your following white blazes) and in the valleys everything is entombed in layers of snow. Higher up on the balds the wind still reigns supreme whipping all the snow down except the unfortunate flakes slammed head first into trees, creating thin triangular white tree sides. The only other colors are the occasional brown mud of the trail, the dark green of curled rhododendrons, or the faded brown of old leaves gamely clinging to their branches.
Despite the snow and cold (and thanks to some sweet new gloves) I did try to take plenty of pictures.
Glad to hear you survived today! My drive to work this morning was rather treacherous from an overnight storm, and I found myself muttering about winter refusing to die. But after getting word about your hiking conditions today, my heated car ride didn't seem so bad!
ReplyDeleteWe've been comparing your progress to the weather.com radar maps, so thanks for those updates. And as always, thanks for the great photos! They would look absolutely gorgeous if I didn't know how miserable you must have been!
Be safe and we shall continue praying for warmer weather... For us all! :)
Kristen